1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a gas cell sealing method.
2. Related Art
Techniques are known that seal an electronic component package or a semiconductor package. For example, JP-A-2002-137939 describes melting a sealing member under a predetermined temperature distribution created on a glass member surface by forming an irradiation power distribution with optical heating means. Japanese Patent No. 4665260 describes a glass substrate sealing system that includes a laser process assembly that forms an airtight sealing portion by heat melting a sealing material disposed along a plurality of display packages disposed between glass substrates, a transfer assembly that supplies glass substrates to a work table disposed underneath the laser process assembly, and a buffer assembly that retains glass substrates in a manner allowing glass substrates to be continuously supplied to the work table via the transfer assembly. The work table has temporary position alignment means that temporarily aligns the glass substrates being placed in position by the transfer assembly, a precision alignment means that consequently aligns the glass substrates, and a plurality of jet orifices through which air is jetted in a direction opposite the irradiation direction of a beam from the laser process assembly.
An optical pumping magnetic sensor is a known example of a biomagnetic measurement device that detects a magnetic field produced by an organism such as in the heart. The optical pumping magnetic sensor uses gas cells filled with alkali metal gas. One way of sealing such a gas cell is to seal the opening of the gas cell with a lid. In sealing a gas cell by bonding the gas cell main body and a lid with a sealant, the bonding heat applied to the sealant may put a thermal load on the gas cell or on the gas inside the gas cell. The techniques described in the foregoing publications apply heat over a relatively wide area. While this enables sealing a wide area, high-precision sealing of a minute area cannot be achieved with these techniques.